Connect, Cultivate & Convert, with Mary Fain Brandt

Speaker 1 (00:03) Welcome to amplify the personal brand entrepreneur show. Today on the show, Bob is speaking with Mary Fain Brandt. You only need to post once a day on LinkedIn on your personal profile. If you post at 08:00 a.m., and then you post something at 10:00 a.m., neither one of those posts are going to perform well. And that's an algorithm thing on LinkedIn. Now, you can post multiple times on your company page and it doesn't matter. LinkedIn doesn't care. I don't know why it's that way anyways. So you have to understand some of the basics of LinkedIn to make your content work. Also, you just have to share stories and make it more real and relatable. Don't be like everybody else. Be yourselves. Speaker 2 (00:43) Hi there and welcome back to the personal brand entrepreneurship. My name is Bob Gentle and every week I speak with incredible people who share what makes their business work. If you're new to the show, then while you still have your device in your hand, then take a second to hit the subscribe button. That way you won't miss a single episode. And if you're a regular listener, then consider sharing this show with just one person. It's the very best way you can help me grow the show and reach more people. Now, I've mentioned a few times recently that I'm a little guilty of being a social media butterfly. I am everywhere. And while that is my business, it's not the finest strategy for most people. Normally, I would recommend applying the 8020 rule and lean into what's working. And for me right now, that's LinkedIn. So with me this week is California's a very unlikelyn princess, Mary Fane Brandt. Mary, welcome to the show. Speaker 1 (01:38) Why, thank you for having me. And thank you for that new title. I just became a princess. How did you know? I always wanted to be a princess. Thank you. Speaker 2 (01:48) So, LinkedIn is your jam and your butter and your cake, and I know that. But for the listener who is meeting you for the first time, could you offer a little orientation around the universe of Mary Famebrand? Speaker 1 (02:00) I sure can. Well, hi everyone, thanks for tuning in today. I'm Mary Fame Brand and I'm an international speaker and trainer of LinkedIn. But I started off as a career coach because I was going through a career change. And that's how I stumbled upon this platform called LinkedIn, and that it was really a place that resumes went to die. And then fast forward, right? I started a business and I was coaching people and I was like, well, you have to have a LinkedIn profile as career professional or job seeker. And then I had an AHA moment of like, why aren't entrepreneurs on here? So I dove into everything LinkedIn, learned all the ins and outs and how to use it as an entrepreneur and business owner. And now I teach that to other entrepreneurs and business owners. And I still serve career professionals because I have a special place in my heart for women looking to level up their careers and how to position themselves properly on LinkedIn. Speaker 2 (02:57) So, career coaching, I remember when I was a kid, career coaching consisted of, you should probably go and buy a suit. That was pretty much all it was. Speaker 1 (03:07) And print out five copies of your resume. Speaker 2 (03:10) Yeah. And even that, that was complicated when I was a kid, to print something, my word. These days, it's just so much more complicated. But it does boil down to, number one, the first impression, that's really important, so we can speak about that. Number two. And this was something that I resented for the longest time until it was working in my favour. And then I thought, this is amazing. And it really comes down to network who, you know, but more importantly, what they think of you. And it's a thing when you're building a network, you can build your network in such a way where you give a bad impression. You'll know lots of people, but you'll be known for the wrong things, or not known. Speaker 1 (03:48) Like, you're connected, but you're not really known for your great qualities and what you do. Right. There's a lot of people that have, you know, 10,000 connections on LinkedIn, but nobody really knows them or knows what makes them great. Speaker 2 (04:01) Yeah. Now LinkedIn is vast. We have groups, we have live streaming, we have audio, we have the feed, we've got content, we've got LinkedIn events. There's just so much. But if we were to take it from the perspective of the personal brand entrepreneurs or people like you and I, we're not necessarily looking for a job, right? But actually we are looking for a job every single day. It's quite different. So all of these things that matter in career coaching, they become incredibly important for the business owner. What are the most common mistakes that you see people making? Because we know LinkedIn matters, we know it's important. And yet every day, people drive around LinkedIn like it was some kind of wacky racers show. Speaker 1 (04:47) Yeah, they drive like they're on a they crash and burn on LinkedIn. So a couple of things come to mind. First, they really haven't established a personal brand. So to get clear, your logo, your font and your colours, those are brand assets. That is not your personal brand. So what do you stand for? Anyone that knows me knows that I love coffee that's infused in my brand. I love bright colours. I show up with the energy and I talk with my hands. When you're on a live show, people who watch my live show, I am who I am online as I am offline. So defining and creating a personal brand and then pushing that out on LinkedIn, for lack of better words, like through your content. So, mistake number two. No, they're not producing content. So there's over 800 million users on LinkedIn, and I think it's still somewhere around five to 6% of users are creating content. Okay? So what better way to get in front of your clients? What better way for people to understand who you are as a person and what you do, what value, how you can help them than through content? Speaker 1 (06:00) So people don't push out content and then they're not consistent. We'll do it, like, once a month, I think. Speaker 2 (06:06) I often talk about a personal brand being a little bit like a beacon, and everybody has one. I could meet the guy in the store downstairs. He has a personal brand. But there's a difference between the accidental personal brand that you grew up with and an intentionally cultivated and amplified personal brand. And this is the problem that you're describing, is people just assume that their personal brand is something that they have as an asset, but they haven't invested in it. Speaker 1 (06:33) Yeah. They haven't defined it, created it, and really thought about it. So part of my personal brand is I'm known as a connector. I mean, you and I, we met at Social Media Marketing World, right? For the first time in person. But I'm reaching out, connecting people that I intentionally wanted to meet you because you weren't from the United States. Speaker 2 (06:55) Let me tell the story for you, Mary. Speaker 1 (06:57) Okay. Speaker 2 (06:58) I was going to Social Media Marketing World as the scared new guy, I'll be honest. Although, to be fair, I knew a few people there. I wasn't that scared. I was kind of looking forward to it. But a lot of the time when I go to an event, I'm one of the people that people generally know. Not so at Social Media Marketing world. And so when I got a message saying, hey, you should come to a breakfast thing I'm organising because you're coming from out of town, I thought, Fantastic. So you show your workings from my perspective. You walk the walk. This is genuine connecting. There's no agenda, there's just relationships. And today's seat of a relationship is tomorrow's opportunity. And now you're here. Speaker 1 (07:37) That's a good thing. I'm going to have to borrow that. I like that. Yeah. And the same thing with LinkedIn. So, for me, during the pandemic, everything was it was a shit show, okay? People were spamming and selling and they were like, Mary, I need a network. Well, have you been building it? Well, no, I need it now because I can't meet with people. Right. So really prep for anything to happen. So, because of what happened during the pandemic and people were desperate to get on, LinkedIn, didn't know how to do it, they were spamming everyone. I created my three C method, and I think this applies to everyone. You need to learn how to connect in a non salesy way. You need to cultivate the relationship, nurture it, and then you need to convert. And when I say convert, I mean convert to opportunities. If you go after everyone on LinkedIn and only connect with ideal clients, right. And you're in for that hard sale, you're missing out on so many wonderful opportunities. So when I say the word convert, I want people to change the definition. It's not convert to sales. It's convert to an opportunity. Speaker 1 (08:44) An opportunity to become a referral partner for someone, for them to become a referral partner for you. An opportunity to collaborate on a podcast or a live show or a book. An opportunity to build brand ambassadors, right? Brand ambassadors that just love the work that you're doing. So they comment on your post and they become probably referral partners. So the three C method is how to connect, cultivate, and convert people in your network on LinkedIn. Speaker 2 (09:13) So let's actually go through each of those one by one. I think that's probably a good thing to do. So connecting, there's a bad way to do this, and there's a good way to do it. I'm going to just do the bad way. Every few days, I get a connection request from someone, and it's from a vague area, and I look at the profile and think, okay, I know what's going to happen next. I'm going to accept this connection request. And in three, two, one ping. There's a direct message trying to sell me something. That's bad news. Speaker 1 (09:44) I delete and block those people. I don't have time. Speaker 2 (09:46) Well, I do, too. That's the consequence of doing that to me. So what's the right way to connect? Speaker 1 (09:53) So, one, you should always personalise the message, but more importantly, you need to connect with purpose, right? If all you're doing on LinkedIn, connecting with people that you are trying to sell to, then you're really missing out on the opportunity. You can, one, damage your reputation. You can lose out on being connected with someone who might, in the future be a client or be a referral partner because you spam them and you drop down their inbox with, hey, Bob, I see that you do podcasting. We can take that podcast. I can turn it into 20 pieces of micro content for you and do it all for the best savings on the planet. Let's get you on a call. People don't want that in 2022. I don't know if they ever really did, but it used to work, right? In 2022, people need to get to know you. So if you drop in with a connection request, I won't connect with someone if they don't have a personal message. And if the personal message I have two of these in my inbox. If it says, hey, Mary, I see you're doing some interesting work over here. Speaker 1 (10:56) I'd love to connect with you, I replied back to test it. I said, oh, what's so interesting? What was so unique? What stood out? That was three or four weeks ago. I have never heard back. So I'm pretty sure that was a bot, an automated message and so I saved those because I use them as examples in my training. Do you want me to use you as an example in my training and ruin your reputation? Probably not. So personalise it you don't walk up to someone at a networking event. Hey, Bob, I'm Mary. I do LinkedIn transformations. You know what, let me take a look at it. Let's sign you up for a consultation call. You don't do that in person. Why are you trying to do that online? Second, be intentional. You don't need more connections does not mean more business. So be intentional with the people that you're connecting with on LinkedIn. That's the connection part. Speaker 2 (11:48) So then we have cultivate and cultivate. You mentioned content. Now I'm going to jump to what I think is a lot of people's main issue. I see two things happening on LinkedIn. For some reason. Some people's posts, they get tonnes of engagement, and other people's posts, it's almost the same post, they get very, very little. So those people who are getting lots of engagement, what are they doing differently? Because it's not necessarily the content itself. Speaker 1 (12:20) That's a loaded question there. So I'm thinking, what time and day did they post? Did they post at a better time and day? Do they have a larger network? Are they in a pod where people are actually going in there's? Those pods still that happen, have they the person that is getting the engagement, have they cultivated their network in such a way that people love their content and they're showing up? Are they more consistent on LinkedIn? So more people are seeing their content? If someone comments on their posts in that first hour to 2 hours, are they going in and commenting back? So that is a very loaded question. I think that you have to test it and it depends on your network time, content and what type of job you've done at cultivating your network. There are some people that do amazing work and we all have posts that fail. You talk to any LinkedIn trainer, consultant, strategist man? I spent an hour writing this post. It was heartfelt. It wasn't salesy. I was providing value at the end. It was a great story and it tanked. And let's be honest, none of us can beat the algorithm on any social media platform because they change it. Speaker 1 (13:33) We have to learn to play by their rules. Speaker 2 (13:36) I think it was absolutely a loaded question and I think there are so many different ways to answer it. But I thought it would be an interesting conversation. I think what you mentioned about how you cultivated your network is such an important one because it's a little bit like if I walked up to an event and there were 200 people there and I hadn't built any relationships with them, I could walk in with a handful of diamonds, but people wouldn't give me that time of day. I'd have to go and essentially, are those fake? Speaker 1 (14:01) Are they real? Because they don't know you. You haven't established your personal brand, you hadn't cultivated the relationship. So, yeah, you're right. Are these real? Why is he giving me a diamond? Right? Speaker 2 (14:14) Whereas if you cultivate the relationships and everybody's kind of in the habit of engaging with you, then you could walk in with a box of gummy bears and you'll get everyone's attention. Speaker 1 (14:24) I like it. Speaker 2 (14:25) I like that analogy. Speaker 1 (14:27) Yeah. So cultivating the relationships. Even this year, like Anne Small, we've got to know each other and we comment on each other's posts, even though we do the same thing. We're both LinkedIn trainers. We comment on each other's posts because we have cultivated that relationship, right? And so it's really about cultivating the relationship and engaging on someone else's post. Are you doing that? Are you just posting and that's it? Are you just posting once a week hoping that magic is going to happen? Yeah, it might happen once for you. But if you're not active on the platform and active does not mean viewing, I call those people the LinkedIn lurkers. Yeah, Mary, I'm on there every day. Really? I don't see anything. Oh, no, I sit there, I see all your content. How come you're not commenting once in a while? How come you're not creating content? So it's really about being active on the platform. Speaker 2 (15:21) I think there is a counterpoint to all of this because you mentioned you don't need a big audience. And a lot of people, they do chase engagement because engagement gives us a dopamine hit. We feel good when we're getting attention. But the truth is, most LinkedIn posts, if you have a reasonable size network, they will get a few hundred views. That's a few hundred people. And I know that typically, the people who have engaged with me commercially, I become clients, they've seen my content over months and years, but they've never engaged with it. And you know what? Speaker 1 (15:53) You're cultivating those relationships and eventually, when the time is right for them, when they think personal brand or something, right? Or for me, oh, I need my LinkedIn. I need to go from boring to badass, because that's what I do. I take you from boring to badass on LinkedIn. They'll reach out when the time is right. So you're nurturing and cultivating your relationships, your connections. On LinkedIn, I had a lady who I did not know. We had no mutual connections. And I got an email and she was like, hey, I'm looking for a new job. I'd like help. I've been following you. And through the email and then the conversation, she was like, oh, yeah, I've been following you for six months, reading your content. So sales is a long game. It's not the cutting game on the green for golf or any of our golf listeners. It's that long drive, right? It takes a little more effort, it takes a little more time. But if you're consistent, nurturing your network, cultivating the relationships and giving back, not just expecting someone to comment on your post, but are you giving back and commenting on other posts? Speaker 1 (17:02) And here's a tip, you guys, when you comment on a post on LinkedIn, your name and title shows up, right? So you're top of mind, tip of tongue. So if you want to connect with someone, start commenting on their posts, right? Do a couple of comments. Maybe you comment on a Monday, maybe then you comment on a Thursday or the next week, and then send them a connection request. Because they'll be like, oh, that's Mary FAM rant. Yes, she was commenting. She made that comment on my post. Oh, you're already building that no, like, trust factor. Speaker 2 (17:33) Yeah. From a cultivation perspective, that's a really smart idea. We've spoken about posts, we've spoken about comments and things like that. From a cultivation perspective, is there anything else that's important? Because we haven't talked about the messaging feature. Speaker 1 (17:50) You just brought it up, though, the messaging feature. So one of my favourite tactics, and it always gets like a response when I've connected with someone, I send them a quick, you know, or if someone's commented and we're already connected but we haven't chatted in a while, I'll whip out my phone and I'll send them a video message on LinkedIn and every time they reply right back, oh, that's so cool. I didn't know you could do that. Or I'll send them an audio message on my phone. So don't just text the message, the in mail message on LinkedIn. Mix it up, do video. I'll be like, in workout clothes with a baseball cap and be like, hey, Bob, I just want to say thanks for your comment on my post. Or, you know, hey, Suzie, thanks for that message. I'd love to catch up with you. Let's look at something in two weeks. You know, it just makes it more personal, right? And then you're more relatable to the to the connection, whether they're a client or just a connection, someone maybe you're going to collaborate with. Speaker 2 (18:50) I think the video messages and audio messages, they're quite magical because they are impossible to ignore. I don't know what it is that's happening in the brain when you send them, but I know when I receive them, I can ignore a message that comes in through DM with text, no problem. But if somebody's sent me a video, I can't just quickly glance at it. I have to hit play. But I know the moment I hit play, things are going to happen in my brain that create a relationship with this person. Yeah, it's really interesting and very powerful. Speaker 1 (19:22) I like what you said, so let's go with this. You guys stand out like a unicorn in the DMs on LinkedIn. Send a personal video or audio. I like that. Speaker 2 (19:32) I'm going to have to write that down, right? So convert. We've connected, we've cultivated, obviously, whirlwinding through this, the conversion side of things. Obviously, everyone is on LinkedIn because they want customers and there's a wrong way to do it. We've spoken about that. But if you are somebody who needs new clients on a regular basis, what's your go to methodology, routine workflow, SOP whatever you want to call it. Speaker 1 (20:02) Yes. My routine is to provide value, literally to provide value by the content that I put out. I deliver free value twice a week, mondays, with the audio show called The B Show, where we talk about coffee and career tips and trends. My co host and I, Laura Bashore, we do that every Monday to serve our career professionals and job seekers. And then on Tuesdays, I have 15 minutes of fame and I share business development, LinkedIn features and tips, and my favourite apps that I use as a business owner, we take the 15 minutes of fame and then create more micro content so that more people can see that. So it's about sharing your knowledge, your expertise, and delivering value to your network, showing that you are the expert, you are the answer. And then I think it's mindset. We're not everyone's cup of tea. I'm not everyone's cup of tea. That's okay. You're not everyone's cup of tea and that's okay. We need to be intentional in our messaging and in our content so that we can convert into the opportunities. So, again, clients are great, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say, you know what's better than a client is a referral partner, because they feed you clients for life of the relationship. Speaker 1 (21:20) So if we maybe focus, yes, we want clients, but what if we kind of changed our mindset, Bob, and said, you know what, I'm going to look for ten amazing referral partners. I'm going to create a deck for them that they can share with people, and I just did this that they come across. I have someone that does talent acquisition and recruiting. Some of their clients need LinkedIn help. They don't have a stellar LinkedIn profile that is part of a career professionals checklist these days. So creating a package that's just for his clients is creating a referral partner for life. Speaker 2 (22:00) That's really clever. It's clever to the point I had to write it down, I think. Yeah, it's always more efficient to go looking for the one person who already has many of your clients rather than going out looking for each client. Speaker 1 (22:12) Create the referral partner. Laura. And I the cohost of the B show. We have been referral partners for probably four years. And we have a 10%. We literally have a 10%. It's unofficial, we've written it up, but we don't have a link or anything. She's a resume writer. I don't write resumes. That's a special talent. God did not bless me with that. But she is amazing. And so when I have my career clients. Part of the package is yes. And then you'll work with Laura, right? And she does LinkedIn and career coaching, but she doesn't do the deep dive like I do. So we send clients back and forth, and we also refer bits and pieces back and forth. So create that. Imagine if you did that with ten amazing people. Speaker 2 (22:57) It could be game changing. I've had some amazing referral partners through my career, and in the difficult times, they were the difference between staying in business and going out of business. Speaker 1 (23:10) So I think we have to change our mindset on what convert means. Convert to opportunities. Not everyone's going to be a client, and that's okay. You can't handle all your connections on LinkedIn needing your help. Let's be honest, right? How many can you handle? Okay, so you want to get four new clients this month. That's usually my number. I don't want more than four new clients a month because that's all the work I can take on. And so be intentional. Set your attentions. Make sure you're producing content that speaks to those clients. Make sure you understand what your clients wants and needs are. And set up referral partners. If you don't have those, start looking for them. And it can be people that do exactly what you do because they might be too busy, that might not be their ideal client. So, you know, set that up with people. Look right in your inner circle and people that do what you do and say, let's talk about what this would look like. Have a conversation. Here's what I want to say. Step out, have the conversation. As scary as it might sound, you've got a 50% chance of someone saying yes. Speaker 1 (24:19) Those are pretty good odds, and those. Speaker 2 (24:22) Odds go up if you're prepared for the conversation. Because what you talked about with having a slide deck specifically for referral partners, having an offer that's just for that referral partner, that's quite good. Yes. Rather than just sort of rocking up and thinking, oh, wow, referral partner, I've never thought about this before, look competent. That makes such a difference. So when we're talking about looking competent, if somebody is serious about us and they think, you know what, I'm kind of intrigued. That guy looks interesting. You know where they're going to go? It's profile checkout time. So what are the most common screaming errors that people make in their profile? Speaker 1 (25:06) Where do I start? How much time do we have? Speaker 2 (25:12) Okay, I'm not looking for a new job. I'm looking for somebody to discover my profile and take me seriously as a potential referral partner, potential service provider. Speaker 1 (25:22) So creating a headline that stands out if you just put CEO or founder, that doesn't capture our attention, right? That's a title that you've given yourself. Or maybe you are at a larger agency looking for clients. So create a headline that explains who you work with. So here's the formula. Who do you work with? What is the value? How do you help them? And what is the value of benefit? So who do you work with? Is it women? Is it men? Is it small agencies? Is it corporate? Is it fortune 500? Is it women in finance? Who be specific. How do you help them and what's the value? Do you increase their profile views? Do you reduce their turnover rate? So what's the value? So I think having a strong headline and then I think having an about you section that is not just a bunch of bullet points of what you do, like too much text. Break it up and make it interesting so the reader wants to learn more about you. Speaker 2 (26:25) I think you had a LinkedIn success checklist that I downloaded from your website before the call. And one of the things that I was slapping my forehead because I did this just last week was cheque your profile once a year, update it. And that's not necessarily because what you've done has changed, but LinkedIn's got a whole bunch of things that were never available to me the last time I did my profile. Sort of like a little video. Welcome. Speaker 1 (26:53) Cover videos are hot. Speaker 2 (26:54) I know what a difference they make to the first impression. Speaker 1 (26:58) And mine is a little different. I say my title, but you'll have to watch my cover video. And then for me, I use it as an ice breaker. If you want to connect with me, answer a question in my cover video. That's what I said in my cover video. You're going to have to go watch it. Speaker 2 (27:14) Are we not connected on LinkedIn? Speaker 1 (27:17) I feel that's always mistake number one with people that I say in my presentations is like, you're not connected with people that you already know. Speaker 2 (27:26) Yeah, usually I am. I know we connected on Facebook. Anyway, that's a little bit of an aside listener. Now LinkedIn. Yeah, there's all kinds of things available in the profile that I just never thought of. Things like also the about that's, the featured content section. Speaker 1 (27:43) I love the featured content section. It works well for content that you want more eyes on, events that you're hosting, a podcast that you have, a live show that you have the thing with a feature that I have a lot of my featured I have testimonials listed in my feature because it's right there at the top. But you do need to go in and update it. So put some stuff there and then some people are really good and they update it every week. I'll be honest, I don't update it every week. I probably update it every three weeks. Speaker 2 (28:15) Well, I found a really cool way to show you to use it, and I'll show you later on the listener. You just have to go and look at my profile. But I found a LinkedIn profile. Wow, this is awesome. So I used a lot of. Ideas from there. Speaker 1 (28:28) Oh, yeah, you have your book, your free discovery call that yeah. You can have links to your pages and stuff. Speaker 2 (28:36) Yeah. Now, the problem that a lot of people have, and this is, I guess, where we're going to get into what it is you do for money. A lot of people are not very creative and most importantly, they don't really understand why they're awesome. So how do you work with somebody to help them reset themselves on LinkedIn in such a way that people look at the profile and you go, wow, right? Speaker 1 (28:58) This is my favourite thing to do, is to revamp a profile and take someone from boring to badass in one of my VIP intensive. And so it's through listening to my clients and asking them questions and hearing their stories. So I've been dubbed the story extractor. I extract your stories and we weave that into not only your profile, but into your content. And so I constantly work with people that don't have a profile at all, like five followers that's, you know, that happens all the time to someone who's had a profile up there, but they haven't touched it in years. Right? So it's outdated, it doesn't speak to their strengths. It's written in a very dated fashion, which people can tell. And so it's through the conversations of listening to my client and asking them the right questions so that I can extract how fantastic they are. That's my other word, how fantastic are you? And so it's really through listening to my clients and we tend to downplay our strengths and skills. I don't know, I wasn't raised to say, oh, my God, Mary, you're amazing. That was amazing that you tied your shoes today at five years old. Speaker 1 (30:13) Like, we're not raised that way, but what we do as an individual, other people do it, but we have our own spin on it, the knowledge that we have, what makes you unique. So we have brand exercises that we actually do, and I have exercises that my clients have to go and do, and then they come back and they're like, I had no idea that's how people viewed me. And so it starts with some simple exercises, then it goes into the conversations and then I find the right words that enhance that really up level it. So we'll say, oh, I'm great with numbers. That's kind of boring, right? So how do we take an accountant and make that amazing? So we take it and be like, I can find hidden numbers on your data sheet that up level your profits at the end of the year. Right? So, yes, he's good with numbers, but what's the byproduct of that? So it's about word play. Speaker 2 (31:11) You mentioned the stories and this kind of brings me back to content. So half of your profile on LinkedIn is the fixed point of your actual LinkedIn profile page. The other half of your LinkedIn profile is the content. It's the fuel to the beacon. Speaker 1 (31:28) It's a compliment. So you have your personal profile. You can have a company page, two separate things, and then your content. I always say that your profile is the foundation, right? It's foundation of your house. And then you have that company page and the content is kind of protects everything. Because without content, you're just you just have a profile. How are people going to know how awesome you are, what services you offer, where you're travelling to, what conferences you're attending, what events you're attending. Like, there's content everywhere around you. So when people the biggest struggle my clients have the business owners besides the profile, I can whip that out and get that done. Then they're like, I don't know what to post, Mary. And so it's through the stories. I'll come up with ten items. Okay, Bill, tell me about your accounting business and where do you go on vacation? What's your favourite thing to do? You're a grill master. Great. Labour Day is coming up. We're going to get a photo of you grilling burgers. We're going to show who you are and make you more relatable. And then we're going to weave in, pack stuff, right? Speaker 1 (32:31) And so it's through the stories that we create the content. Because content, it's important to have content out on LinkedIn. And on that note, if I can just share, you only need to post once a day on LinkedIn on your personal profile. If you post at 08:00 A.m., and then you post something at 10:00 A.m., neither one of those posts are going to perform well. And that's an algorithm thing on LinkedIn, it is not instagram. Now, you can post multiple times on your company page and it doesn't matter. LinkedIn doesn't care. I don't know why it's that way. Because they feel anyways. So you have to understand some of the basics of LinkedIn to make your content work. But you also you just have to share stories and make it more real and relatable. Don't be like everybody else. Be yourself. Speaker 2 (33:15) I think what you're advocating there is a 3D strategy. Don't be one dimensional, be multi dimensional and be intentional. Content doesn't happen by accident, ever. It needs to happen. Speaker 1 (33:27) You know that it's through conversations and planning, and you should be planning three months out at a time. That's my other struggle with my clients. Like, I have a planning session today at 330. We've been emailing and we already have, I think, two months of content ideas and now we're going to lay it out and we're going to timetable it, what makes sense, and throw the holiday post in. And then I'll get busy at creating it. Speaker 2 (33:55) So the last place I want to go is Live. Speaker 1 (33:57) LinkedIn live is now open to everyone. Speaker 2 (34:01) I didn't know that. Yeah. Now, one of the things is, because it's available, but still very few people are using it for the average business owner, consultant, trainer, content creator. What is a sensible live strategy? Because the problem, if you take somebody like me, I have a podcast, I have a YouTube channel, you want me to sit down and create more content once a week? Great, I'll do that. But I want to know that I'm doing the right things in the right place, in the right way, for the right reasons. Speaker 1 (34:33) So a live strategy does your audience what kind of content do they consume? Right. If they don't consume live and videos, you have to train them. But a live strategy is figuring out how long your show is, what's the title, who are you talking to and what's your main topic, how often are you going to go live? And it's up to you. I used to do Bitesized tips for busy Entrepreneurs. I'd interview someone once a week. It's a lot of work getting someone on a show, you know, and with a video, there's assets and all that. So we went to 15 Minutes of Fame, where it's a quick show you need to have for a live show, it should be at least 15 minutes long. An hour long, I don't believe works all the time. That's too long. Nobody wants to sit and watch a video for an hour. The other thing you need to know is that you're going to get more action on the replays. Right. Because the time zones and everything, and I've played with time, and there are weeks where it's amazing and there are weeks where it's not so much amazing. Speaker 1 (35:39) Going live is easy. I use StreamYard. They're amazing. Click a button, go live. You need a decent microphone and a light. I do believe that live shows that have a guest generate more viewers. Okay. So I do believe if you're going to start going live, it is better to have a guest. Come on. Speaker 2 (36:04) I agree. All the times that I've gone live, it has generally been with a guest. And it's much easier. You don't have to you don't have. Speaker 1 (36:12) To carry the show. Speaker 2 (36:13) Yeah, it's a conversation. We're hardwired to have conversations. We're not really designed to have one way conversations with a camera. Speaker 1 (36:20) Yeah. So that would be my biggest tip is what type of information? Like, are you a blogger? So you're doing is it copywriting? Like, what's your specialty? What do you do? You're a copywriter. Have other copywriters. Come on. Have people that publish books, anything in that arena. Right, but you need to like, what do you want to be known for? Because, Bob, if you did a show on Cupcakes, does that go with your business? Speaker 2 (36:46) It doesn't support anything, does it? Speaker 1 (36:47) Yeah. So be intentional. Think about it. Don't go live. Just to go live. Speaker 2 (36:52) So how important is routine with a live show? Does it need to be the same time every week? Speaker 1 (36:59) Yes. You train your audience, right. Like Tuesdays at 12:00. Right. It used to be Tuesdays at seven. I think I'm a Tuesday live girl, now that I think about it. It's always on Tuesday. But yeah, you need to be consistent. So pick your day and time that works for you. If you pick 07:00 A.m. On Wednesdays and you're not a morning person and that's going to be a struggle for you because the kids are getting ready for school or you just can't you don't wake up that early. Right. Don't pick that time because you think everyone else will be there, because you will have a challenge and it will be very difficult for you to keep up that time. So really think about what time is going to work best for you. Speaker 2 (37:41) I think that's the best advice. Because with a live show, it will build its own audience over time and you need to give it time. There's no two ways about it. If you're regular, if you're consistent, you show up at the same time every week. Over time, you'll build an audience. Now, I'm very aware of the time and I'm going to have to bring things to a close. I could honestly speak to you for the rest of the day. Speaker 1 (38:02) Thank you. This has been great. We can do it again. Speaker 2 (38:05) We will have to do it again. For the listener who's thinking, I like the sound of that. Mary fame brand, how can they engage with you? How can they go further with you? How can they connect with you? Asking you what's your favourite place to connect is kind of mute. Speaker 1 (38:20) LinkedIn, right? But you can send an email to hello@maryfamebrandt.com. You can start the conversation there if you prefer, or you can message me over on LinkedIn and I can take you from boring to badass in a VIP intensive in 4 hours. 4 hours with me directly. And we just we transform your profile where you're going to stand out like a strong cup of coffee. We do branding. That's my new thing too, to stand out like a strong cup of coffee and get known and get found. Speaker 2 (38:52) And Mary, what's one thing you do now that you wish it started five years ago? Speaker 1 (38:58) As a business owner, I wish I had started from day one using a CRM system. So even if you start with Excel, Excel is free, google Sheets, whatever you want to use, start with something because you will thank me later. You will send me a big, beautiful bouquet. If you are starting off, you've been in business for a year, start using a CRM system now. Those are the people that you're already engaged with, your clients, your potential clients. You can follow up with them if you have a CRM system and you can also track your success. Oh my gosh, I've had 50 clients my first year, or I'm at 500 clients. What about this list of people that said no? Is there a yes for them now? Speaker 2 (39:44) And what's your favourite CRM. Speaker 1 (39:46) So HubSpot, they have a great CRM. You can start for free using that one. I have to be honest, I'm still looking for the perfect CRM and the one doesn't exist. So don't do what I did. Find one that works. HubSpot is a great starting point, I believe for everyone. Speaker 2 (40:03) I will show you something when we're finished recording. I think you'll like it. So Mary, you have been an awesome guest. Thank you so much for your time. Like I said, I'm going to have to have you back sometime. Speaker 1 (40:13) Okay, it's a date. Speaker 2 (40:15) So that brings us to the end of another episode. Thanks to you for listening and if you have enjoyed the show, then I would gently encourage you to leave a five star that's five star rating wherever you listen to podcasts and share the show with just one person. And if you did enjoy the show, then you will love the personal brand and business roadmap. It's 100% free as a gift from me. It's 30 pages of everything you will need to start, scale or just fix your expert business. Click or tap the link in the show notes or visit Amplifymead Agency Roadmap. Thanks again, Mary, for joining us this week. And to you for listening and see you next week. Bye.